I just had my car into the shop about a week ago to do routine maintenance and also had to replace my A/C compressor and also had to fix my driver side window that got skewed in there because of some bolts to the power window motor got sheared off somehow... It ended up costing me about $1,700 by the time I was done doing everything hoping it'd be good for winter. Not but 2 days later my check engine light was on so I took it in - and they couldn't find anything wrong with the car at first but I told them it seemed to be lacking a bit in it's acceleration and after they looked into it further they found that there is something wrong with my some of the valves - the Exhaust valves for sure - and they quoted me $3,800 to do a valve job on the car. I'm a bit hessitant on going through with it because it will make my maintenence/repair bill about $5k in a 2 week period - and my cars blue book value is only about $8k (2002 wrx, about 110,000 miles) I had problems with wheel bearings before this - but that problem seems to have been solved since I got new wheels put on the car. The car has been costing me a lot (mostly in labor costs- nothing major) in the past year, and I take it in and have them do whatever they can to keep it in top shape but no matter how much I keep sticking into it something else always seems to go wrong with it. I don't really want to sell the car because it's got some modifications on it that I'll never get my money back from It's got brand new wheels that cost me about $2k, it's lowered, tinted windows, it's got some custom interior trim pieces (carbon fiber simulation) and an aftermarket steering wheel, a nice sound system, it's got stock but kind of rare paint (black pearl)... and it's an auto trans. - not much performance wise... but its still something... and the interior of the car looks new - it's in really good condition - the exteriors got typical wear and tear of rock chips and scratches on it - but other than that its good. I've been toying with the idea of an engine/trans. swap in it - if it'd help me retain value at all.... I've been curious about doing an STI swap for some time - and not sure how that would all work out - or what'd cost me - or how I could get it done, but it's something I've thought about. Anyone got any reccommendations or ideas for me??? ~ thanks in advance
Burnt valves is fairly common on the 2.0L WRX's, most folks find it is due to the type of gas they run. First off, don't pay a shop $3,800 to fix that. I don't have a huge grasp of shop prices, that that price seems high. There are some folks on this board that may be willing to help (we have two Subaru techs, Subytek and Driftin240), and a couple shops that would probably get you a better deal (RS Motors, and you could PM Mike Wray - LegacyPGT). You could also visit Morries Minnetonka and see if they could offer you a better deal. For Morries, you can purchase an MNSOC membership and get 10% off labor. Second, swapping in parts is 100% NOT going to help your car retain value. Swapping in a 2.5L block and STI transmission will not get your car to sell for more when you are ready to sell. Obviously a 2.5L is more desirable then the 2.0L to most enthusiasts, but will not be desirable to 95% of the people looking to buy your car when you are ready to sell. I understand the desire for the 2.5L and STI tranny swap, but I'd advocate for doing those things only if the price is similar to the 2.0L swap (which it may be, especially if you can source parts and find a good shop to do the work), and/or you have the extra cash and time/energy to get the job done right.
sti swap will get very expensive if you can't do the work yourself, but i believe someone has a motor listed for sale on here. i would assume someone on here would swap a motor for you if you paid them, but it would be less than what a shop would charge. If i had a garage to work in i would even do it, or help do it.
thanks for the suggestions "retain value" was not the right word choice - but you got to what I was shooting for anyways. so if I were able to find a 2.5L swap for a somewhat close price... just looking online they don't seem to be too far apart.... you say I'm going to need other source parts (how much in other parts would I need?), cash, time, and energy... would you be able to elaborate on that a little bit for me? I've looked into doing something along these lines but most times I see people doing this they go all out and spend like $20k+ on it. I've also not done any swaps before - nor a lot about tuning up cars, but it's possible I might be able to find people that are able to possibly help out that have done it before (although not a subaru) - depending on how complex the swap is. I've got time on my side how ever as I don't really need my car for a while. If I were to do a swap... whats a ballpark estimate of what it might cost me?
Swapping a EJ257 into a WRX wouldnt be that bad at all. The amount of work involved depends on if you want to run the stock EJ205 heads or go with the STi heads (complete STi long block swap) Just swapping the short block will give you more displacement and allow you to keep the stock wiring harness intact. You will be able to use probably all of the parts that are already on the car (exhaust, injectors, wiring, ect..). you will probably need a tune to tell the ECU what to do with the extra .3L of displacement and probably slightly different compression ratio. If you swap in the entire STi long block you will gain AVCS but at the cost of having to have the STi wiring harness merged with your stock WRX one. This can be a difficult process but there are people out there (Chux on here, or East Coast Swappers, or Garage Tuning) that offer harness merges as a service. You will need some different parts as I think the STi intake manifold and injectors are different. As you can see, what it will cost will kind of depend on what you want to do. but for reference IIRC a BNIB STi short block w/ the MNSOC discount is under $3000.
I just had my 03 Wrx heads gone through, 8 bent valves, valve seals, checked the line hone, adjusted the lash etc... Costed me $730 at the machine shop. I'm guessing your heads would be quite a bit cheaper because you didn't have a timing belt come off and a cam break.
not if your slapping on wrx heads displacement doesn't come solely from the block its cylinder vol with heads, block, gasket, valves, and fully torqued down.
Well I was starting to think an STi swap was not going to be feasable for me, but I started to look at some prices and I was finding that I can get find complete swaps off of ebay for around $6k-$7,500k that included the engine, trans, turbo, ecu, exhaust, wiring harness some had all the pedals, axels and everything... there was at least one that was a wrx shortblock already converted that would be a perfect drop in already. So now my question is.... if I could sell my good trans and my engine for a couple grand or so... it'd basically be the same price as me having the repairs done to my car where it's at now. If I've got all the necessary stuff, how much time would it take to swap into my car.... it's the labor costs that really worry me the most. I might be able to get someone to help me do it - but not sure, if I could it'd probably save me a quite a bit. any comments about this ?
^ Talk to one of the people I mentioned about doing the wiring. That is normally the most time consuming piece of it all. IIRC There are a couple people who have done complete STi swaps on here and both did their own wiring and it took them about a month. But it all depends on how much time you are willing to throw at it. Chux and I could have finished (from driving the car to the shop area to driving it home) mine in 1 week of straight work (there were some 16 hour days in there) but I did not have my short block plans figured out (missing a vital piece lol). If you are looking at having a shop do it, most of the places have posted prices. for example ECS ( http://eastcoastswappers.com/rates.php ) wants 3350 for doing the swap. It looks like GT ( http://garagetuning.com/Swap Pricing.htm ) wants about $3000 for just the motor swap. Granted some traveling would be required to have these shops work on your car, but they are both very reputable in the swapping world.
